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We've improved Slashdot's video section; now you can view our video interviews, product close-ups and site visits with all the usual Slashdot options to comment, share, etc. No more walled garden! It's a work in progress -- we hope you'll check it out (Learn more about the recent updates).

HughPickens.com (3830033) writes "The NYT reports that Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department. Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act. “It is very difficult to conceive of a scenario — short of nuclear winter — where an agency would be justified in allowing its cabinet-level head officer to solely use a private email communications channel for the conduct of government business,” says Jason R. Baron. A spokesman for Clinton defended her use of the personal email account and said she has been complying with the “letter and spirit of the rules.”"Link to Original Source

When Google stopped paying Mozilla Foundation $300,000,000 each year, Mozilla Foundation took money from Yahoo to sneakily "update" Firefox so that it uses "Yahoo search". Yahoo search is actually Microsoft's Bing search. A quote from Marissa:

"I'm thrilled to announce that we've entered into a five-year partnership with Mozilla to make Yahoo the default search experience on Firefox across mobile and desktop," Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer said in a blog post Wednesday. "This is the most significant partnership for Yahoo in five years."

Now, somehow, the Firefox and Thunderbird user interfaces have been degraded. Firefox no longer allows making a duplicate tab from a tab; it is necessary to right-click on a web page to make a duplicate; that doesn't work well because it is necessary to find a place on the web page that is not a link.

Thunderbird and SeaMonkey composer now have the Save-As bug.

So, Microsoft paid Yahoo. Yahoo paid Mozilla Foundation to trick users into using Microsoft's Bing search engine. And now Mozilla Foundation is apparently allowing the degradation of its products. Apparently Microsoft wants Firefox and Thunderbird to be degraded that so there will be more users of Microsoft's browser and email software.

Quote: "But when Page took over as CEO in April 2011, he did not make a spot for her on his senior leadership team. Instead, she took over the company's location and local products, fueling speculation she would leave Google."

Audiofan (719817) writes "Last Thursday the FCC voted in favor of reclassifying the Internet as a Title II public utility. This means all US-based Internet services will fall under FCC regulation giving it the power to exercise a series of rules intended to enforce net neutrality. The move gives the FCC the power to back up what had previously been a toothless 2005 net neutrality policy statement. But the decision is not without its detractors from the Republican party. Despite the criticisms, this Internet regulation has a long-term positive outlook for America. What do you think?"Link to Original Source

Qbertino (265505) writes "I've been trying to pick up a classic OOP oriented compiled language since the early 90ies and have never gotten around to it. C++ always was on my radar but I'm a little torn to-and-fro with Objective-C. Objective-C is the obvious choice if you also want to make money deving for Mac OS X, but for the stuff I want to do both languages would suffice on all platforms. I do want to start out on x86 Linux though and also use it as my main development platform. Note: The fight is only between these two. Yes, I know quite a few other PLs, but I want to get into a widespread compiled language that has good ties into FOSS and both Objective-C and C++ fit that bill.I'm leaning towards C++ but what do you recommend? How do these two PLs compare to each other and how easy is cross-plattform development in either? (GUI free, 'headless' applications). Thanks for your opinion."

An anonymous reader writes "Interesting article tests the Raspberry Pi 2's potential as a NAS, with a lot of benchmarks. Has setup instructions. Tests 10/100 vs USB Gigabit adapter, and tries an SMB optimization,"Link to Original Source

He was not only arrested, he was also charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor. A prior drug charge on his record meant he was potentially looking at decades in prison. Seven witnesses backed up the police account that Dendinger had assaulted Cassard.

But Dendinger had asked his wife and nephew to record him serving the papers. It was a last minute decision, but one that may have saved him his freedom. That’s all well and good. And Dendinger has since filed a federal civil rights lawsuit. But why aren’t the seven witnesses to Dendinger’s nonexistent assault on Cassard already facing felony charges?"Link to Original Source

I strongly disagree. The whole idea is nonsense. If there is a failure of the "command channel" in the table, everything I said is correct. Do you trust Ikea to make 100% reliable electronics?

A few days ago, at a store called Dollar Tree, I bought a Charge and Sync dock for $1. Wouldn't a dock be better than buying cheap-looking Ikea furniture, especially since the convenience is minimal or non-existent?

Who would EVER put an expensive phone flat on a table??? That's asking for trouble. It's easy to knock it off.

I'm NOT saying the $1 dock is better. I'm saying that a dock is better than laying a phone flat on a table. (The $1 dock needs a charging transformer, of course.)

Look at the Wikipedia page to which you linked! Quoting: "This article appears to be written like an advertisement."

Air core transformers, especially air core transformers with distance between the primary and secondary, don't transfer much energy. Do you want to wait longer because you bought an ugly-looking Ikea table?

An anonymous reader writes "I recently discovered that a partner web site of a financial institution I do business with makes it trivially easy to view documents that do not belong to me. As in, change the document ID in a URL and view someone else's financial documents. This requires no authentication, only a document URL. (Think along the lines of an online rebate center where you upload documents including credit card statements.) I immediately called customer service and spoke with a perplexed agent who unsurprisingly didn't know what to do with my call. I asked to speak with a supervisor who took good notes and promised a follow-up internally. I asked for a return call but have not yet heard back. In the meantime, I still have private financial information I consider to be publicly available. I'm trying to be responsible and patient in my handling of this, but I am second guessing how to move forward if not quickly resolved. So, Slashdot, how would you handle this situation?"

Quote from the article: "The wireless charging works through an energy induction transfer."

Translation #1: There is a coil in the table. There is a coil in the back of the phone. The 2 coils act as a transformer with an air core. That only works if you bought a new phone. (And paid huge amounts for it including the 2-year contract.)

Problem: The coil in the table will also induct energy (induce electricity) into anything that conducts electricity.

So, if a child puts a phone on the charger area that is not one meant for rear-side induction, there will likely be problems.

Library books have chips with high-frequency antennas. The chips help libraries prevent theft. It is possible that putting electricity into the antennas will cause problems.

What else could go wrong? Lots. Some of the chemicals in your body are conductive. So, if you rest your hand on the table, the coil will cause electrical current in your hand.